In January 2019 we submitted a FOIA request asking for the contents of the EOIR‘s “Guidance and Publications” intranet site. The site is part of the EOIR’s intranet, which is accessible to all EOIR employees, and appeared to contain guidance for immigration judges on a host of topics. In July 2019 we received roughly 94 heavily-redacted files (posted below as “First Production”) which includes charts related to which state crimes trigger removability, guidance for IJs on how to handle certain types of relief applications, competency documents, etc.
We appealed the agency’s decision to withhold a number of these records and to redact others. Our appeal was granted in August 2021. We’ve now started to receive supplemental documents (posted below as “Second Production”). This set relates to the agency’s handling of competency issues for detained respondents, including compliance with the Franco-Gonzalez injunction.
I expect more documents are on the way. I’ll post them here when we receive them.
Third Production Zip File
Second Production Zip File
First Production ZIP File